Preschool Crafts

11 Zoo Crafts for Preschoolers (Easy Ideas)

11 zoo crafts for preschoolers, each with a picture and simple steps. Easy ideas for ages 3 to 5 using paper, paint, and glue.

Kindergarten Prep Team
Oct 11, 2026

A paper plate painted yellow with a fringed rim makes a lion, and a child who makes one will want the monkey next. Here are 11 zoo crafts for preschoolers, each with a picture, supplies, and steps, using plates, tubes, and paper bags.

These fit a zoo week or the days after a zoo trip, enough for one a day. A three-year-old paints the plate lion and glues on the mane. A five-year-old turns a row of handprints into a zoo and makes the paper bag monkey puppet talk.

Start here: three zoo crafts that always work

Paper plate lion, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5Paper plate lionPaint a plate, fringe a manePaper bag monkey puppet, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5Paper bag monkey puppetGlue on a face, play with itCupcake liner lion, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5Cupcake liner lionOne cupcake liner and a marker

11 zoo crafts for preschoolers, with pictures

Handprint zoo animals, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

1. Handprint zoo animals

The child stamps handprints and turns each one into a zoo animal such as a lion, elephant or giraffe with a marker.

Handprint

You need: grey paint, yellow paint, black marker, orange marker, 2 googly eyes, 1 sheet of white paper, glue

How to make it
  1. Paint your child's hand grey. Press it on the left of the paper, four fingers pointing down and the thumb sticking out to the side. Wash the hand.
  2. Paint the hand yellow and press it on the right the same way. Let both dry.
  3. Elephant: glue one googly eye above the thumb trunk, then draw a big ear and a short tail in black.
  4. Lion: glue one googly eye on the thumb head, scribble an orange mane around it and draw a black tail.
Paper plate lion, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

2. Paper plate lion

The child paints a paper plate yellow and fringes, curls or glues paper strips around the rim for the mane.

Paint and glue

You need: 1 white paper plate, yellow poster paint, orange paper, 2 googly eyes, black marker, glue

How to make it
  1. Your child paints the plate yellow. Let it dry.
  2. You cut short orange strips. Glue them all the way around the rim so they stick out past the edge as a mane.
  3. Glue the 2 googly eyes in the middle of the plate.
  4. Draw a triangle nose and a curved mouth below the eyes with the marker.
Paper plate monkey, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

3. Paper plate monkey

The child paints a paper plate brown and glues on a tan face, round ears and a smile.

Paint and glue

You need: 1 white paper plate, brown poster paint, tan paper, brown paper, 2 googly eyes, black marker, glue

How to make it
  1. Your child paints the plate brown. Let it dry.
  2. You cut a large tan oval. Glue it across the lower half of the plate as the muzzle.
  3. Cut 2 brown circles and 2 small tan circles. Glue a small tan circle on each brown circle, then glue them at the sides of the plate as ears.
  4. Glue the 2 googly eyes above the muzzle.
  5. Draw 2 nostril dots and a wide smile on the muzzle with the marker.
Cupcake liner lion, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

4. Cupcake liner lion

The child snips around a flattened cupcake liner to make a mane, glues it down and draws or glues a lion face in the middle.

Cut and glue

You need: 1 orange cupcake liner, yellow paper, 2 googly eyes, black marker, glue stick, white paper

How to make it
  1. Press the cupcake liner flat into a round disc.
  2. Your child snips short cuts inward all around the edge to make a fringe.
  3. Glue the liner in the middle of the white paper as the mane.
  4. Cut a small yellow circle and glue it in the centre as the face, then the 2 googly eyes on it.
  5. Draw a small triangle nose and a curved mouth below the eyes with the marker.
Handprint monkey, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

5. Handprint monkey

The child prints a brown hand as the monkey's body and adds a face, tail and a vine to hang from.

Handprint

You need: white paper, green paper, brown poster paint, black marker, glue

How to make it
  1. You cut a long green strip and 2 small leaves. Glue the strip across the top of the paper as a vine, with the leaves on it.
  2. Paint your child's hand brown and press it below the vine with the fingers pointing up so the fingertips touch the vine.
  3. When the paint is dry, draw 2 dot eyes and a smile on the palm with the marker.
  4. Draw a curly tail from the bottom of the palm.
Toilet paper roll elephant, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

6. Toilet paper roll elephant

The child paints a cardboard tube, and ears and a trunk are cut and folded out of the tube itself or added in paper.

Build it

You need: 1 toilet paper roll, grey paint, grey construction paper, 2 googly eyes, glue

How to make it
  1. Your child paints the roll grey. Let it dry, then stand it upright.
  2. You cut 2 large rounded ears and a trunk strip from grey paper. Curl the end of the trunk.
  3. Glue one ear on each side of the roll.
  4. Glue 2 googly eyes on the front near the top.
  5. Glue the trunk below the eyes, hanging down the front.
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Letter E elephant, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

7. Letter E elephant

The child glues a grey E to paper and adds a big ear, a curling trunk and an eye to turn it into an elephant.

Cut and glue

You need: grey construction paper, pink construction paper, 1 large googly eye, 1 sheet of light green paper, glue stick

How to make it
  1. You cut a large capital E from grey paper and glue it upright on the green sheet.
  2. Cut a big rounded grey ear with a smaller pink shape inside. Your child glues it on the upper part of the E, overlapping the straight side.
  3. Cut a long grey strip, curl its end, and glue it on the tip of the top bar as a trunk.
  4. Stick the large eye on the top bar beside the ear.
Paper bag monkey puppet, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

8. Paper bag monkey puppet

The child glues a face, ears and tummy onto a brown paper bag to make a monkey hand puppet.

Puppet

You need: 1 brown paper lunch bag, brown paper, tan paper, 2 googly eyes, black marker, glue

How to make it
  1. Lay the bag flat with the folded bottom flap at the top as the head.
  2. You cut 2 tan ovals, 2 brown circles and 2 small tan circles.
  3. Glue one tan oval on the lower part of the flap as the muzzle and the eyes above it.
  4. Glue a small tan circle on each brown circle. Glue them on the sides of the flap as ears.
  5. Glue the other tan oval below the flap as the tummy. Draw 2 nostril dots and a smile.
Letter G giraffe, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

9. Letter G giraffe

The child glues a yellow G to paper, adds a head, ears and horns on top and covers it in brown spots.

Cut and glue

You need: yellow construction paper, brown construction paper, 1 sheet of light blue paper, 2 googly eyes, glue stick

How to make it
  1. You cut a big capital G from yellow paper. Your child glues it upright on the light blue sheet.
  2. Your child tears small pieces of brown paper and glues them all over the G as spots.
  3. Glue 2 short brown strips on the top edge of the G as horns.
  4. Cut 2 small yellow ears. Glue one on each side of the horns.
  5. Glue the 2 googly eyes on the top curve of the G under the horns.
Handprint penguin, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

10. Handprint penguin

The child prints or traces a black hand as the penguin body, then adds a white belly, eyes, beak and feet.

Handprint

You need: black paint, white paper, 2 small googly eyes, orange paper, glue, light blue paper

How to make it
  1. Paint your child's hand black. Press it in the middle of the paper with the fingers together pointing up and the thumb out to the side. Let it dry.
  2. You cut a small white oval and glue it on the palm as the belly.
  3. Glue the 2 eyes on the fingers above the belly. Cut a small orange triangle and glue it below them as a beak.
  4. Cut 2 small orange feet and glue them right below the palm.
Paper plate polar bear, an easy zoo craft for preschoolers ages 3 to 5

11. Paper plate polar bear

The child covers a paper plate with cotton balls or torn white paper and adds ears, eyes and a black nose.

Collage

You need: 1 white paper plate, about 20 cotton balls, 2 white paper half circles, 2 large googly eyes, 1 black pom pom, glue

How to make it
  1. You cut 2 half circles from white paper. Glue them behind the top rim, one on each side, as ears.
  2. Your child glues about 20 cotton balls all over the front of the plate.
  3. Glue the 2 eyes on the plate in the upper half.
  4. Glue the black pom pom in the middle as a nose.

Zoo crafts with a 3 year old: pick one animal at a time

Pick the animal the child liked most at the zoo and start there. One animal, one afternoon. The paper plate lion and monkey use the same plate and paint setup, so do them the same day.

A three can paint plates, glue on a cupcake liner mane and work the paper bag monkey puppet. Handprint animals need an adult to paint the hand and press it, and the tube elephant needs an adult to cut the trunk.

The letter E elephant and the letter G giraffe are the ones for letter sounds. Say the sound as the letter goes down on the page.

Line the finished animals up on a shelf as a zoo, or glue them along a long strip of paper with a fence drawn under them. The puppet goes in the toy basket.

What you need for zoo crafts

Most of these use the same handful of supplies: googly eye, glue, black marker, white paper, white paper plate, glue stick, grey paint, orange paper. Everything else is named on the craft it belongs to.

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